M66 Traffic Stopped at 8:45am After Crash Near Simister Island
m66 traffic was stopped at 8:45am on the northbound carriageway near Simister Island after a collision, briefly holding vehicles between junction 4 at the M60 and junction 3 at Pilsworth Road. Queues built quickly on the M66 and on connecting roads as drivers were kept waiting.
The stoppage affected drivers joining from the M60, while heavy traffic also built on the M60 clockwise for vehicles approaching Simister Island. Congestion tailed back towards junction 16 at Clifton, with long queues also reported in the Prestwich area.
Simister Island Junctions
The hold on the northbound M66 covered the stretch between junction 4 and junction 3, the section that links the M60 at Simister Island with Pilsworth Road. That made the disruption immediate for traffic trying to move between the two motorways, rather than only for drivers already on the M66.
Traffic was also backing up past junction 17 at Prestwich and Whitefield on the clockwise carriageway, adding pressure to a route already carrying delay around the interchange. Drivers on the M60 anticlockwise near Heaton Park also faced delays joining Simister Island.
Prestwich Queues
The area around Prestwich took the strain as the stoppage spread beyond the crash site. Heavy traffic was reported on the M60 in the Prestwich area, and the queues extended far enough to affect junction 16 at Clifton.
The incident was later cleared, and traffic was released on the M66. For drivers approaching the interchange after the stoppage, the practical effect was a return to moving traffic, but only after the backlog had already built on both sides of Simister Island.
M66 and M60 Release
The sequence was straightforward: all traffic stopped at 8:45am, queues formed on the M66 and M60, and the road was later reopened to moving traffic. For anyone joining from the M60, the key change was the release of vehicles on the M66 after the closure had already pushed delays back through the junctions around Simister Island.
For readers using that stretch, the immediate takeaway is to expect that a short stop at the interchange can spill onto both motorways, especially where the M66 northbound meets the M60 clockwise and the approaches around Prestwich and Clifton.
